sxates

Relating to the "Flying at Night" thread, I decided to make a dedicated thread to the solution I came up with for illuminating my ABX at night.

First, I got the hobbyzone "night flight" x-port module. INSIDE the box, is a note that tells you it isn't really designed for the ABX, but smaller planes like the slow-v, and challenger. The tail-facing lights completely missed the tail, and the wing lights did not point out far enough to adequatly light the underside of the wing. So I took it apart, and took my dremel to it to allow me to reangle the LEDs to better light the plane by widening the holes. I still need to put some hot glue or something on it to secure the lights in place (they're kinda lose now).






So that effectively lit the underside of the wing. But the clip holding it on was very loose, and it didn't really keep the lights aligned. So I forced it onto the larger of the two clip areas on the bottom, which kept it in place better, but it was easy to pull it off. So busted out the dremel again and cut into it a little bevel so that the clip could hold on tighter.



So now to the top of the plane. Since the wing isn't thin and white like the slow-v, I can imagine turning the plane and losing sight of it completely as the lights are on the underside and I'd be looking at the top. So I definitely want something on the top to light that as well. Best solution I could find was some little LED "mini-lights" made by Innova. These are made for keychains and stuff, and are quite small and light, and last "up to 15 hours". You can get them in several colors, but I got mine in white. I got 3 of them at Fry's for about $7 each, one for each side of the wing, and one to point backward to the tail (even with the new angle, the x-port module doesn't light the tail very well). I just slipped them under the wing rubber bands, and they hold great. Unfortunately, on "high" they turn off automatically after 4 minutes, which is no good, so you have to use them on "low" or on "strobe". I took them out to the field tonight to test visibility (was too windy to fly--though that didn't stop me from trying), and I think low mode will still be enough to maintain visibility. The strobe is on high, and blinks pretty quick, so I'll have to do some experimenting to see which mode works best. Here's what the top looks like:






I got it in the air for about 10 seconds before emergency landing it, since the wind speed tonight exceeded the planes top speed. Stupid I know, but it looked great in the air for the short time it was up Can't wait to try it when the wind calms down. I suspect that the plane might actually be easier to orient at a distance with the lights than in the daytime, since the top and bottom of the wing are lit differently.

Anyone have any further suggestions?

CrashParkFlyer

Gotta say man, that looks cool. Let us know how you find flying it when conditions are better.

critterhunter

I've made my own night flight module for the Extreme and my other planes. I used a glue stick tube. Took a trip up to Radio Shack and picked up some 2 volt LEDs of various colors and wired them in series to equal the input voltage. Works great. Rather than mount a bunch of those key chain fobs on the wing I'd take some LEDs and use thin wire to route them to the wing tips, tail, and nose...feeding off the plane battery. The night flight module, while very cool, doesn't do a good job of showing you the top of the plane. If you don't get the plane up high and almost directly above you right away it's REAL hard to keep a handle on what it's doing. That said, the night flight stuff is pretty cool. I've flown the Extreme and Challenger at night and it looks like a UFO streaking against the stars in the sky. VERY neat.

sxates

Well, wind has been >20mph all week, and it's finally calming down today. Have been flying around a bit this afternoon (will be posting a new video soon), and so I hope to try this out tonight. Will let you know how it goes, and if I can convince my wife to come, maybe get some video of it.

sxates

Well, flew it around tonight with the lights. Worked pretty well, though I really want to find a way to make the top LEDs brighter and not have them turn off automatically. I have an older model of the same light that has a hard switch, guess I need to find some of the older ones. Having them attached to the wingtips might work better as well, as often when the plane was perpendicular to me all I could see what a bright white spot, not the wing.

Oh, and one of the blue wing LEDs is not working anymore, looks like it's broken loose from the circuit board. Guess i damaged it in my fiddling. Will have to work on that All in all though, I think this will ultimately enable me to fly at night without many problems.